Salud America! Gets $650,000 Genentech Grant to Bring More People into Cancer, Alzheimer’s Research

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Did you know that Latinos represent 18.5% of the U.S. population, but are less than 10% of those in federal cancer and drug studies?

This makes it hard for researchers to create treatments that work best for Latinos, which in turn, can help all people.

To engage more people in research, the Salud America! program has received a three-year, $650,000 grant from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, to create tailored recruitment strategies for clinical trials in cancer treatment and Alzheimer’s disease.

Salud America!, established in 2007, produces multimedia research, tools, and stories to fuel its digital network—over 400,000 moms and dads and health, community, and school leaders across the nation—toward healthy changes that ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to be healthy.

The new funding, part of Genentech and The Genentech Foundation’s $16 million initiative to promote STEM, will help Salud America! expand its work into clinical trial promotion and recruitment.

“We are honored Genentech chose us for the important task of bringing more people to cancer and Alzheimer’s clinical trials, which can help researchers save more lives,” said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! and the Institute for Health Promotion Research in the Department of Population Health Sciences at UT Health San Antonio.

Latinos are among the many groups that suffer issues with the non-medical drivers of health, including stable housing and transit, social support, healthy food, and other health-promoting assets.

As a result, they suffer many health issues. For example, Latinos have higher rates and worse outcomes than their white peers for liver, stomach, and cervical cancers, and are 1.5 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

One solution is to enroll more participants in clinical trials to better reflect the US population.

In trials, researchers test life-saving treatments and prevention activities. But Latinos account for less than 10% of people in federal cancer clinical trials and fewer than 4% of FDA drug trials, despite being over 19% of the US population.

“Our Genentech support will allow us to use tailored digital health communications, action networks, and clinical partnerships to promote health and advance clinical trials for cancer treatment and Alzheimer’s disease,” Ramirez said.

Salud America! will work to:

• improve understanding of clinical trials and biobanking;
• increase self and collective efficacy for enrolling in clinical trials and biobanking;
• increase awareness of how unconscious issues against some people curtails recruitment to clinical trials and biobanking;
• improve patient-provider communication and trust; and
• increase self and collective efficacy for participating in action to promote policies and systems that reduce issues in healthcare settings and remove challenges to participation in clinical trials and biobanking.

The effort will address clinical trials at both the national and South Texas levels.

“Our national-level outreach will occur primarily via tailored, mobile friendly, online educational materials to promote participation in clinical trials and biobanking for cancer and Alzheimer’s,” Ramirez said. “We also will conduct a local-level pilot study to increase recruitment of patients to cancer clinical trials from San Antonio (over 64% Latino).”

Salud America!’s new grant is one of 16 projects funded through a Genentech campaign around STEM and health innovation funding.

“By leveraging charitable giving to uncover and address the root causes of [issues] in healthcare and education, and working together to commit to change─I believe we have a real chance at true progress.”

Learn more about Salud America! at www.salud-america.org.